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Red vs. Blue
Red vs. Blue, often abbreviated as RvB, is a popular sci-fi action, comedy machinima series created by Rooster Teeth Productions. It focuses on the lives of the Red and Blue teams from Blood Gulch. Praised for its originality, the series has won four awards from the Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences and won the award for "Best Animated Web Series" in the International Academy of Web Television in 2012 and 2013. Production The writing process for the series has changed over time. Early in season 1, Burns wrote the episode scripts from week to week, with minimal planning in advance; major plot events were conceived shortly before they were filmed.Burns, et al., Red vs. Blue Season One, Audio Commentary. For the second season, Matt Hullum became a main writer.Burns and Hullum, Red vs. Blue Season Two, Audio Commentary. A rough plot outline is now written before a season begins, although the actual content of an individual episode is still decided on a more short-term basis.Konow, 3. Because Red vs. Blue is loosely based on the Halo universe, Rooster Teeth encountered some difficulties when trying to synchronize events in the series with the release of Halo 2. Aside from a few scenes created using Marathon Infinity, Marathon 2, and the PC version of Halo, Red vs. Blue is mostly filmed with interconnected Xbox consoles. Originally using the Halo: Combat Evolved engine, it has since been filmed using three sequels and one prequel of the popular game: Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo: Reach, as well as utilized Computer Generated Imagery. During The Blood Gulch Chronicles, episodes were largely set in the Halo map Blood Gulch and its Halo 2 counterpart, Coagulation while some episodes were filmed on other maps, including Sidewinder from Halo and Zanzibar from Halo 2. After The Blood Gulch Chronicles had ended, they began using more locations within later games, such as Valhalla from Halo 3 and Exile from Halo 4. Within a multiplayer game session, the people controlling the avatars "puppet" their characters, moving them around, firing weapons, and performing other actions as dictated by the script, and in synchronization with the episode's dialogue, which is recorded ahead of time. The "camera" during the first four seasons was simply another player, whose first-person perspective is recorded raw to a computer. As the recording occurs within the game, a few different bugs and post-production techniques have been exploited in order to achieve desired visual effects. In particular, Adobe Premiere Pro is used to edit the audio and video together, impose letterboxing to hide the camera player's head-up display, add the titles and fade-to-black screens, and create some visual effects that cannot be accomplished in-game.Burns, et al., Red vs. Blue Season One, Audio Commentary; Moltenbrey. For Season 5, the PC version of Halo 2 was used to film episodes, making use of detaching the camera. From Reconstruction onward, Halo 3's (along with it's sequels/prequels) theater mode was utilized for shooting scenes that were more difficult to achieve using previous titles. as seen in Revelation.]] In 2009, Monty Oum was hired to work on minor special effects in Recreation, most notably Epsilon's laser beam in Think You Know Someone.Red vs. Blue: Revelation, Audio Commentary. During the production of Revelation, Monty began working on animating the Red vs. Blue characters in Computer Generated Imagery, which was blended within Halo 3 by Nathan Zellner and Matt Hullum. Since then, Rooster Teeth has moved to a new office building with a whole empty storage room, used for motion capture. Rooster Teeth also currently have a full team of animators working on Red vs. Blue's animation, alongside Monty Oum. They have produced the Poser animation for Season 9 and Season 10. During the production of the third saga, Rooster Teeth Productions decided to employ a new writer to the series. Around 2012, Miles Luna became the writer of Red vs. Blue, who has written for the Where There's a Will, There's a Wall mini-series and Season 10. Currently, Miles Luna is the main writer and director of the fourth unnamed saga and co-writer for Rooster Teeth's animated series, RWBY. For Season 12, Chris Dike was hired to take over for the series' additional animation, which was blended with the in-game engine similar to Revelation. Main Characters :Main Article: List of Characters :Main Article: List of Appearances Red Team *Colonel "Sarge" (Season 1-) *Captain Richard "Dick" Simmons (Seasons 1-8, 10-) *Captain Dexter Grif (Season 1-) *Private Franklin Delano Donut (Seasons 1-5, 7-8, 10-) *Lopez the Heavy (Seasons 1-7, 10-) Blue Team *Private Leonard L. Church (Seasons 1-7, 9-10) *Captain Lavernius Tucker (Seasons 1-8, 10-) *Captain Michael J. Caboose (Season 1-) *Freelancer Texas (Seasons 1-7, 9-10) *Freelancer Washington (Recovery One-) *Epsilon A.I. (Recovery One-) *Sheila (Seasons 1-6) *Captain Butch Flowers (Seasons 3, 5, 9-10) Project Freelancer *Dr. Leonard Church (Season 6, 8-10) *Counselor Aiden Price (Recovery One-Season 7, 9-10, 13-) *Freelancer Carolina (Season 9-) *Freelancer Maine/The Meta (Recovery One-Season 10) *Freelancer Wyoming (Season 3-Recovery One, Seasons 9-10) *Freelancer New York (Out of Mind, Recovery One, Seasons 9-10) *Freelancer South Dakota (Recovery One-Season 6, 9-10) *Freelancer North Dakota (Recovery One, Seasons 9-10) *Freelancer Connecticut/C.T. (Seasons 9-10) Artificial Intelligence *Omega A.I. (Seasons 1-6, 10) *Gamma A.I. (Seasons 3-6, 10) *Delta A.I. (Out of Mind-Season 6, 9-10) *Sigma A.I. (Seasons 6, 10) *F.I.L.S.S. (Seasons 8-10, 12-) Other *Medical Officer Super Private First Class Frank "Doc" DuFresne (Seasons 2-6, 8, 10-11, 13-) *Andrew D. "Andy" Kaboom (Seasons 3-6, 11) *Vic/Vic Jr. (Seasons 1-5) *Oversight Sub-Committee Chairman Malcom Hargrove (Seasons 6-7, 10, 12-) *Insurrectionist Leader/C.T. (Seasons 7, 9-10) *Locus (Season 11-) *Felix (Season 11-) *General Vanessa Kimball (Season 11-) The Blood Gulch Chronicles The Blood Gulch Chronicles is the first main saga in the Red vs. Blue series, spanning 5 seasons, 100 episodes, and a 5-part mini-series, Out of Mind. The main characters include Sarge, Grif, Simmons, Donut, Church, Tucker, Caboose, Tex, and Doc. Major recurring characters include Lopez, Sheila, and Andy. The primary antagonists are O'Malley, Wyoming, Vic, and Gary. Season 1 The''' first season''' of The Blood Gulch Chronicles begins with the introduction of two rookies on the Red and Blue teams, also getting a jeep and a tank respectively. The Red recruit, Donut, is sent on a fool's errand by his fellow soldiers, only to accidentally steal the enemy flag when he believed it to be the store (and the Blue rookie believing Donut to be the General foretold in the fool's errand of his own). The weeks of reconnaissance and intelligence gathering breaks down into chaos and poorly constructed offenses. Season 2 The second season begins several months after the first season. A medical officer arrives to check on a wounded soldier Blue team reported. He had come months afterward, so by the time he got there, the wounded soldier (Tex) had already died. Almost immediately after his arrival the Red team attacks. Red team salvages their failed attack by getting Doc as an exchange for Blue team's surrender (although he was ordered to go to Red team anyway). Doc's added involvement in the canyon, combined with a rampant A.I. infecting Caboose, will force the two opposing teams to do the unthinkable. Season 3 The third season begins with the Red and Blue teams fighting Doc/O'Malley and soon finding themselves in the "future", with Church traveling back in time, reliving events from the previous two seasons in order to fix past events. When Church, however, is unable to fix past problems, he travels into the future and rejoins the others. Suddenly, the soldiers stumble upon a prophecy that states a blue being destroying everything. Soon afterwards, the Reds and Blues try to defend themselves from an attack by O'Malley when the "Great Destroyer" arrives. Season 4 The fourth season begins with the Red Team following a distress signal back to Blood Gulch, and experience a falling out with one of their soldiers. Meanwhile, Tucker, Tex, Caboose, Andy, and the Alien go on quest to save the alien's race. When their quest comes to an end, Tex ventures off for Wyoming and does not return to Blood Gulch with the rest of Blue team. In the aftermath, when Tucker becomes seriously ill, the Blue team, having no other choice, invite Doc and O'Malley to their base in order to help him. Out of Mind Out of Mind is a mini-series that takes place in between Seasons 4 and 5, being a narrative from Tex's point of view as she pursues bounty hunter Wyoming, told in a much more serious tone. The events precede both Season 5 and Recovery One (see below) and features the first Red vs. Blue episodes to remove letterboxing. Season 5 The fifth season begins with a ship from Earth crash-landing in the middle of the canyon, containing a new soldier. Red team experiences a major crisis in their chain of command and Blue team welcomes a new addition to the family. Church also tries to stop O'Malley once and for all. 100th Episode On April 1st 2007, four years since episode one, it was announced by Burnie on the forums that episode 100 is the last one of the Blood Gulch Chronicles. It was the series finale that tied up all the "loose ends". Click here for the page. The episode was released with three alternate endings, with more on the DVD release. The canon ending is a repeat of the first episode with reversed roles of the Reds watching the Blues "just standing there and just talking." The Recollection 'The Recollection, also known as ''the Recollection Trilogy'' or simply ''Recollections'', is the second saga in the main series that includes the sequel series: ''Reconstruction, Recreation, and Revelation. It also includes two mini-series: Recovery One and Relocated. The main characters in the saga include Sarge, Grif, Simmons, Donut, Church, Tucker, Caboose, Lopez, Doc, Washington, Epsilon, and Epsilon-Tex. Major recurring characters include the Director, the Chairman, and Delta. The primary antagonists are the Meta and C.T. Recovery One '''''Recovery One is a Red vs. Blue miniseries distributed via Xbox Live and the internet that takes place after the events of Out of Mind, as well as before and during Season 5. Its plot revolves around Agent Washington, also known as Recovery One, who is a Freelancer like Tex, Wyoming, and York. Washington's job is to recover all Freelancer AI constructs of freelancers killed in action by an unknown being. Reconstruction The sixth season, '' Reconstruction '', is a direct sequel to The Blood Gulch Chronicles, exploring the causality of events from both The Blood Gulch Chronicles and Recovery One. The story continues to follow Recovery Agent Washington's journey, tracking down a mysterious enemy called the Meta who is killing Freelancers and taking their armor enhancements and AIs. In need of assistance, Wash has to find the soldiers with the knowledge and experience to help him; namely Caboose and Church. Relocated Relocated is a direct sequel to Reconstruction, following the Red Team, now in Valhalla, struggling to do the usual nothing, and Caboose's strange actions at Blue Base, drawing further attention to himself. Recreation The seventh season, Recreation, is a direct sequel to Relocated and Reconstruction. As the Reds continue to try and figure out what Caboose is up to and wake up a comatose Donut, Caboose continues trying to make a new best friend out of the Epsilon Unit. He finds the Reds' Hologram Chamber, with help from Donut, when Epsilon tells him about Tucker and a mysterious energy reading at a desert. When Grif and Sarge agree to come, in an attempt to put the Blues back in Command's database, the three meet a strange man at the desert. Meanwhile in Valhalla, Simmons, Lopez, and Donut fend for themselves as they battle against the elusive Meta. Revelation The eigth season, '' Revelationhttp://achievementhunter.com/members/journal/entry.php?id=2451090, is a direct sequel to ''Recreation and the last of the Recollections Trilogy. In Sandtrap, Epsilon seems to have no memory as to what happened to him, but he begins to have flashbacks. In one of his power failures, a memory of the Delta AI tells Caboose that the Epsilon is looking for a specific memory. When Epsilon awakens, he and Caboose head off to a secret facility, run by F.I.L.S.S., in order to find it, with the Reds trailing behind them. Epsilon finds the secret in a mysterious bunker and unlocks something terrible: Tex. Meanwhile, Washington and the Meta hunt for Epsilon and have taken Doc hostage. Project Freelancer The Project Freelancer Saga is the third main saga of the series, spanning two seasons and two mini-series. Unlike the previous two sagas, however, the Project Freelancer saga focuses on prequel events taking place before The Blood Gulch Chronicles, as well as present day events. The main characters include Epsilon, Tucker, Caboose, Sarge, Grif, Simmons, Washington, Carolina, Tex, South Dakota, North Dakota, York, C.T., and Maine. Major recurring characters include the Epsilon-Doubles, Delta, Pilot Four Seven Niner, Wyoming, and the Counselor. The primary antagonists of the saga are Sigma, the Insurrectionists, and the Director. Season 9 The ninth season, which begins the Project Freelancer saga, continues directly after the events of n+1, with Epsilon reliving the events from The Blood Gulch Chronicles with his memories of: Tex, Tucker, Caboose, Sarge, Grif, Simmons, Donut and Lopez. Along with this, a new Freelancer backstory is also shown, detailing the history of Project Freelancer and its agents. MIA MIA is a mini-series taking place sometime in between the beginning and end of Season 9. It chronicles the misadventures of the Red and Blue teams searching for Grif while inside the Epsilon Unit. Where There's a Will, There's a Wall Where There's a Will, There's a Wall is a mini-series, taking place inside the Epsilon Unit, that follows the Red Team discovering a huge wall behind their base. Meanwhile, the Blues rejoice over their newly arrived Falcon and argue to see who gets control over it. Season 10 The tenth season continues after the events of Season 9, following Carolina's journey to kill the Director with the Reds and Blues, as well as wrapping up the events of the Freelancer backstory, first introduced in Season 9. This season also elaborates more on the Freelancer A.I. fragments. Chorus Trilogy The Chorus Trilogy is the fourth main saga of the series and takes place after the present-day events of Season 10. The story focuses on the Reds and Blues shipwreked on a long forgotten planet and unexpectedly becoming involved in the planet's civil war. Currently, the main characters include Sarge, Simmons, Grif, Donut, Lopez, Washington, Tucker, Caboose, Epsilon, and Carolina. Major recurring characters include Doc, Freckles, Vanessa Kimball, Emily Grey, Donald Doyle, and the New Republic soldiers: Palomo, Bitters, Jensen, and Smith. The primary antagonists include Malcom Hargrove, Locus, Felix, and Charon Industries. Secondary antagonists include Lopez 2.0 and Aiden Price. Season 11 The eleventh season kicks off the Chorus Trilogy and takes place sometime after the present-day events of Season 10. The story follows the adventures of the Reds and Blues as they are being transported home after being pardoned for helping bring down Project Freelancer. Unfortunately, after their ship crash lands in an unknown location, the Reds and Blues attempt to find a way out of the area, but obtain the unwanted attention of two groups who may have the wrong idea about them. Season 12 The twelfth season takes place after the events of Season 11. With their friends in the hands of the Federal Army, Tucker, Grif, Simmons, and Caboose train with the New Republic in order to not only rescue them, but save the planet of Chorus in the process. However, they soon learn that there is more to the war and its combatants then they initially thought. Season 13 The thirteenth season takes place directly after the events of Season 12 and wraps up the events of the Chorus Trilogy. After discovering that a group of mercenaries have been manipulating Chorus' two armies throughout the span of the civil war, the Reds and Blues, New Republic and Federal Army of Chorus join forces to go to war against these space pirates and their leader, Malcom Hargrove. Reception Impact on Machinima Red vs. Blue is widely credited with attracting public attention to machinima. Although examples had existed since the 1990s, Clive Thompson credits Red vs. Blue as "the first to break out of the underground".Thompson, 2. Tavares, Gil, and Roque call it machinima's "first big success".Tavares, Gil, & Roque, 4. Thompson notes that "Microsoft has been so strangely solicitous that when it was developing the sequel to Halo last year, the designers actually inserted a special command — a joystick button that makes a soldier lower his weapon — designed solely to make it easier for Rooster Teeth to do dialogue." The series has inspired other machinima productions, including The Codex, Fire Team Charlie, and This Spartan Life. Whitley. Impact on Video Games Due to the series' large and growing popularity, many within the video game industry have made reference to the web-series numerous times. For example, the Halo franchise has referenced the series' characters and recurring jokes in many of its games, as well as hiring Rooster Teeth Productions to promote their products through the web-series. Critics have even stated Red vs. Blue to have amazing character development which other media should take an example of. Merchandise Posters RvB Star Wars theme poster.png|Sci-Fi Poster Red Life.png|Red Life Poster Why Are We Here poster.png|Why Are We Here? Poster Daft RvB - Caboose and Maine.jpg|Daft RvB Poster Anatomy of Caboose poster.png|Anatomy of a Caboose Poster RvB Infographic poster.png|Infographic Poster RvB DKNG poster.png|'What Do You Fight For?' Poster RvB Heroes.png|Heroes Poster Project Freelancer poster.png|Project Freelancer Poster Simmonsisms.png|Simmonsisms Poster Donutisms poster.png|Donutisms Poster Churchisms.png|Churchisms Poster Grifisms Poster.png|Grifisms Poster Tuckerisms Poster.png|Tuckerisms Poster Sargeisms Poster.png|Sargeisms Poster Caboosisms Poster.png|Caboosisms Poster Shirts RVB-Hero_800_Art.jpg|Probably a Hero Shirt Ladies of rvb art.jpg|Ladies of RvB Shirt (Mens) RvB Anniversary.jpg|Blood Gulch Anniversary Shirt RVB Locus 800 Art.jpg|Locus Shirt RVB Felix 800 shirt.png|Felix Shirt Rvb emotionaltimebomb mockup03.jpg|Emotional Time Bomb Shirt RVB-Psy-800-Art.jpg|Psychoanalysis Shirt RvB Subject Epsilon Art.jpg|Subject Epsilon Shirt Blue Team Jersey.jpg|Blue Team Jersey Shirt Red Team Jersey.jpg|Red Team Jersey Shirt Tucker wants YOU T-Shirt.png|Tucker Wants YOU Shirt RvB A Very Fine Line Art.jpg|A Very Fine Line Shirt RvB Select Your Hero Art.jpg|Select Your Hero Shirt RvB Extra Mile Art.jpg|Extra Mile Shirt RvB Future Cubes Art.jpg|Future Cubes Shirt Captain Caboose Shirt.png|Captain Caboose Shirt RvB Nerd Stuff Art.jpg|Nerd Stuff Shirt RvB Freckles Shirt.gif|Freckles Shirt RvB Replace Art.jpg|Replace Shirt RvB Primary Firearm Art.jpg|Primary Firearms Shirt Blue-team-outpost.jpg|Blood Gulch Blue Team Shirt Red-team-outpost.jpg|Blood Gulch Red Team Shirt Blue Team Artwork.png|Blue Team Group Photo Shirt Red Team Artwork.png|Red Team Group Photo Shirt Red vs blue art.jpeg|Red vs. Blue Logo Shirt Memory-is-the-key.jpg|Memory Is The Key Long Sleeve Shirt Legitimate strategy art.jpeg|"It's a Legitimate Strategy" Shirt (Black) Trivia *Burnie Burns got the idea for making The Blood Gulch Chronicles while playing Halo: CE in Blood Gulch. He had gotten the inspiration by asking his fellow teammate "Why do they call it a Warthog? Can't they call it a Puma?" *''Red vs. Blue'' was originally intended to last only six episodes, but its popularity led to the production of over two-hundred, with separate seasons. *The first four seasons were eventually re-shot, or "remastered", using the Halo: Combat Evolved Custom Edition PC game. The remastered seasons presented freedom of the constraints Rooster Teeth experienced in the original production, including removing the target reticle, improving the size of the aspect ratio and removing the camera from the controlled camera character. The remastered seasons were originally released over Xbox Live, but were later released on DVD as a 5-season box set. *Currently, only eight characters have appeared in 100 or more episodes in the series, which are: Caboose, Simmons, Grif, Sarge, Tucker, Donut, Church, and Washington. *Sarge, Caboose, and Grif are currently the only characters in the series that have made an appearance in every season (Note: Grif makes a vocal appearance in Season 9, rather than a physical one). **Coincidentally, they are also the only characters featured in the PSA Sleeper. *Simmons and Grif are currently the only characters in the series to appear in all types of animation forms used in Red vs. Blue (machinima, 2D animation, and Poser). They also currently have the longest series lifespan than any other character, with both being first introduced in the Red vs. Blue Trailer. *Most main human antagonists have a relation to the color white, as Wyoming's armor is entirely white, the Meta's primary armor color is white, the Insurrectionist Leader has white trim when using C.T.'s armor, and the Director has white hair and is in command of Project Freelancer (its signature color is white). The only exceptions are Locus and Felix, who have more of a relation to the color steel (black). *Every season finale, so far, contains a plot twist, except for saga-ending seasons (Season 5, Revelation, & Season 10). :#Season 1: Omega escapes death by infecting Caboose. :#Season 2: Doc/Omega kidnaps Lopez and the Reds and Blues work together to stop him before being sent across the galaxy. :#Season 3: The Reds re-discover Blood Gulch and the Alien is seen. :#Season 4: Junior is born and a Pelican lands on Donut. :#Reconstruction: Church is revealed to be based on Director Leonard Church. :#Recreation: Washington teams up with Meta and shoots Donut and Lopez. :#Season 9: Carolina is revealed to be alive after her supposed death. :#Season 11: Carolina is revealed to have secretly contacted Locus without his knowledge. :# Season 12: The identity of Control is Malcolm Hargrove, who not only recovered F.I.L.S.S. but is also in possession of the Meta's helmet. *There is a recurring theme in the series that occurs in the tenth episode of most seasons that involves a character returning (usually Tex), an important event occurring, or a big reveal. :#S01E10: Church reappears as a "ghost" and Tex makes her series debut. :#S02E10: Both Sheila and Tex return, with Sheila being repaired and Tex possessing Lopez. :#S03E10: Church returns, albiet making a brief vocal appearance. :#S05E10: After returning to Blood Gulch in the previous episode, Tex attacks the Blues and meets Sister. :#S07E10: C.T.'s dig team is revealed to have killed the original dig team. :#S08E10: After debuting in the previous episode, Epsilon-Tex attacks the Reds and Blues and Epsilon is revealed to have gained a new robot body. :#S09E10: Tex battles York, Maine, and Wyoming and the cause of York's eye injury is revealed. :#S10E10: Tex and Carolina battle C.T. and the Insurrectionist Leader, C.T. dies, and it is revealed that the Leader took C.T.'s armor and identity. :#S11E10: Donut, Doc, and Lopez arrive in Chorus and Locus is revealed to possess an Active Camo armor enhancement. :#S12E10: Locus and Felix are revealed to be working together and both Carolina and Epsilon return. :#S13E10: Doyle is revealed to have taken the Great Key of Chorus and Doc makes a return. *The Blood Gulch Chronicles is the only saga in the series that does not begin with a voice-over monologue. *Some of the voice actors from Red vs. Blue were featured in the level Crow's Nest in Halo 3, as two Marines arguing over a password. The voices vary depending on difficulty: Jason Saldaña (Tucker) and Matt Hullum (Doc) on Easy and Normal; Geoff Ramsey (Grif) and Gus Sorola (Simmons) on Heroic; Burnie Burns (Church) and Joel Heyman (Caboose) on Legendary. Sarge cameos on the level Tsavo Highway as the radio operator's voice, just before the tunnel prior to where the Pelican drops off the Warthogs. **Several Red vs. Blue actors also appear throughout the Halo: Reach campaign as marines, with Geoff Ramsey on Sword Base, and Burnie Burns on The Package, among others. *In both Halo 3 and Halo: Reach, "Puma" can be read on the wheels of a Warthog. *In the expansion pack for the video game Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, there is an achievement called "Chupathingy," when a player kills a Chupacabra, a reference to Red Gets a Delivery. *In the game The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, there is an achievement called "Bleep Bloop", in reference to Caboose's self-created achievements in the Small Rewards PSA. *In the game Gears of War, there is an achievement entitled "Is it a Spider?", awarded for sticking 100 enemies with a grenade in multiplayer, a reference to the episode Knock, knock. Who's there? Pain. *The series inspired the creation of the Halo 3, Halo: Reach, and Halo 4 gametype Grifball, based off the statement made by Sarge in Episode 59. *In Halo 4, several characters make voice-only, cameo appearances as Easter Eggs in the Spartan Ops campaign when finding hidden boxes. When shot, the boxes play a segment of Blood Gulch Blues and cause different audio segments to be heard than in the normal campaign. Sources External Links *Red vs. Blue - Official site *The Unofficial Red vs Blue Resource Site *The Cult of Red vs Blue - News article *Wikipedia Article *Fan Art Category:Red vs. Blue